A beautiful lie
by Cengiz
Summary: "Oh my god," the woman pronounced suddenly and her smile became a genuine grin. "You must be Jess! Hil told me so much about you." - "Excuse me?" Jess was flabbergasted, all colour had vanished from her face and her mind was as blank as a freshly bought notebook. - "Oh I'm sorry, where do I have my manners. I am Yasmin, Hilary's wife," the woman explained and offered Jess her hand.


**A/N:** Hello my dears, this is actually a story I started to write over two years ago. Back then I had a chatter with **lovingthis** and she inspired me to write it. Therefore, **this story is dedicated to her**. I hope you like it! I uploaded it, because I was able to upload two chapters of my current long story "All we had" within short time and this is my reward, not only to myself, mostly to you my lovely readers.

beta-read by Dr. Teddy :D

I really hope you will enjoy it!

Have fun!

* * *

" _Look out, Becker! Two raptors in the corridor to your left, stay silent_ ," Becker heard it through the comms and stopped his pace in an instant. He nodded towards the camera in the corner, knowing that Jess was watching him.

He didn't even need to ask. Jess new by the look on his face that he wanted the exact positions. She told them quickly and with two practised shots from the soldier the creatures fell down, out cold.

He continued his walk, slowly, giving Jess enough time to check the other hallways before he entered them.

"So far, I have no visual," the young woman stated, concern sounding clearly through her voice. The CCTV's had captured five of the creatures coming through the anomaly.

Five!

With Becker having taken out two of them and Abby and Connor having shot one each, there was still one on the loose.

One raptor, ready to attack her friends and co-workers at any minute and she couldn't make it out on any of the monitors that showed the footage of the countless cameras.

This really tore at her, but Jess was a professional. She remained calm, helping and guiding her team through the maze of hallways of this abandoned sanatorium.

Broken, old furniture was lying around, sometimes blocking the entrance to rooms or corridors, as well as dusty, used medical equipment and the team had to walk really carefully to not step onto them. Not only to avoid any noises and therewith let them become potential targets for the carnivores, some of the utensils had dried stains of blood on them, increasing the risk of whatever infections, when one of the searching people was stepping or tripping and falling onto them.

Jess kept everyone of the team members in view: A soldier named Flinch and Matt had locked the bright shining rip in time and were now guarding it. Abby and Connor had started to carry the two unconscious animals towards the portal, being shielded by the two other soldiers, Donalds and Jenkins. And Becker, he was alone, heading for the other side of this huge building to find and take out the fifth raptor.

The argue between Matt and Becker when they arrived at the incursion was still resonating through Jess's mind. Matt had insisted on Becker taking one of his soldiers with him, and Becker had countered, that the soldiers were there for their protection, not his.

 _'He was a trained special force soldier with a huge guilt complex in case one of the others would get hurt, but apparently thought that he himself was invincible and didn't need protection,_ ' Jess had silently concluded. And she didn't like that at all. It was not only that Becker was her friend, or that he was there for her no matter what, or that he was the person she had the closest contact with. It was mainly because she had a major crush on this handsome, well trained soldier, almost right from the beginning when she first met him. An affection that had grown daily and with every dangerous situation she or he had gone through, and had now fully matured into a deep felt love.

Yes! She, Jessica Parker, was in love with Captain Becker.

Jess smiled at the proclaim of her inner voice, not lessening the attentive watch over her team members to the slightest.

Since the others were helping and guarding each other, she turned her attention almost fully to the Captain. Even if she couldn't be there physically to help him in his mission, she would guard him through the CCTV. She would look out for him and be his eyes and ears. And she would make sure that this man got back to the ARC in one piece.

Becker was now searching through each of the rooms, trying to find the last dinosaur before the anomaly would close or worse, before it could find a way out and harm civilians.

Jess zoomed closer in on the footage, a queasy feeling inside her stomach as she watched the man stepping into the darkness and reappearing again shortly after, getting only help by the torch attached to his EMD.

It was the last room of this corridor, it's size almost double compared to the others before and Becker hesitated to step inside. The flash only enlightened the first few meters and the soldier somehow sensed danger. He moved the light from left to right, but nothing seemed out of order. He heard nothing and saw no movement.

Becker was about to finally enter as he heard Jess's voice inside his ear, a pitch higher than normal: ' _I saw a claw! Becker please be careful, I saw a claw_ ,' she repeated, her fear for him sounding clearly through.

"You sure?" The soldier asked in return, but already took cover. He trusted her to the core, and when Jess said there was something, then there was definitely something.

' _Yes! Yes, I'm so sure. Becker, the raptor is inside_.' He heard her voice confirming once again.

The soldier ducked down, firing several shots into the room. The first two only enlightened it by a blue ray of light, but with the third shot, he heard a loud roar coming from inside. He fired again towards the direction and suddenly the chest-high creature darted forward, trying to counter-attack.

Becker was pushed to the ground, but had his weapon gripped tightly and fired everything that was left at the raptor.

After several seconds that seemed like an unbearable eternity to the young FCO, the raptor was finally falling unconsciously to the ground. Jess breathed a sigh she didn't know she was holding, and chuckled with relief as she watched the Captain standing up and winking into the camera, a grin playing at the corners of his mouth.

/-/

"Here is my hero of the day," Becker stated smirkingly towards the young woman as he approached her, making sure that their talk remained private by lowering his voice.

"You're exaggerating!" Jess countered, rolling her eyes, but her genuine smile gave her away.

The soldier shook his head in denial. "No Jess, I mean it! I was so close to get hurt today and you saved me. Thank you, Jessica."

"No need to thank me, I'm only doing my job," she shrugged it off, relishing the attention from the man.

He lowered his upper body, decreasing the distance between them, before stating: "You, Miss Parker, saved my life. I would be lost without you and therefore I owe you, big time!"

"You don't owe me anything, Becker!" The young woman contradicted vehemently. "You save lives on a daily basis, mine included. I'm glad I could return the favour for once."

"More than once, Jess," Becker corrected, leaning closer and smiling genuinely himself.

"Huh?" Jess stared blankly at the man, she was unable to form a single clear thought with him so close to her.

"The bomb, Ethan aka Patrick, does there ring a bell?" He questioned, slightly bending his head and observing every little detail in her face with his hazel eyes.

Jess turned her head, trying to hide the blush that was forming on her cheeks. "Oh, now that you remind me, I completely repressed that," she answered, pulling a disgusted face at the memory.

"Well, I'm busy for today, but is there a chance I could take you out for dinner on Friday? As friends? To say thank you for saving my ass," Becker questioned, eagerly awaiting her answer.

Jess acted as if she had to think about his offer, before she replied with a teasing smile, leaning forward: "When there is chocolate cake included, you can take me wherever you want, Captain."

Becker leered at her. "Then that's a deal!"

He stood up, giving her a peck on the head and started to leave as Jess catcalled after him. "I still need your black box, Becker."

The man in question halted and turned around, slapping his head. "Oh, shoot, I completely forgot. Somehow I'm not myself today." He excused and started to rummage in his pockets.

The picture of the Captain being at loss due to a simple tool was too funny to look at. Jess laughed out loud. "S'is ok, Becker," she tried to sooth him, but failed badly.

"Jess! The reports! Now! I don't pay you for flirting!" Lester shouted from his office, using this moment to interrupt the short banter.

The woman in question rolled her eyes at the impatient man. "He doesn't pay me to play his secretary either," she remarked, making Becker chuckle. Nevertheless, she instantly stood up, grabbing the files, and headed for the office.

When she came back, she took the little left tool from her table and tried to put it back in the recharger. Strangely it didn't fit.

Jess took a closer look, grinning brightly as she realised what the Captain had actually left:

It was his cell phone. Black, the same size as the boxes and one could easily mix them up, wasn't there the little aerial peeping out on the shortest end.

She turned around, hoping to see him somewhere near, but he was already gone.

Dialling the number of his office, Jess could only listen to the beeping sound, revealing he wasn't there, so she decided to call the security guard instead.

"Hey, Sam," she greeted friendly as she heard the soldier speaking. "Do you know if Becker had already left?"

"Yes, Ma'am. He just drove by. Do you need anything?" he asked concerned.

"No. It's alright. Thank you, Sam." She hung up again, deciding that she would drive by his home to give him his phone back. Becker would need it, in case there was an incursion. It's just a gesture of politeness she explained to her inner squealing self.

Not much work was left and so she went all busy-bee. Being done half an hour later, she grabbed the cell phone and her stuff, and almost fled the hub, sending a hurried "Till tomorrow" towards Lester's direction who stood there baffled with his finger raised, "But what is-".

"Bye, Lester!" she cut him off and before the suit could say anything more, she was out of sight.

/-/

Jess pulled into the parking lot, taking the sheet of paper from the passenger seat once again to check the address, making sure that she was standing in front of the correct building.

"Alright," she smiled encouragingly to herself, grabbing her bag and getting out of the car.

Locking the door with a sounding _click - click_ , she turned around heading for the main entrance.

Her heels resonated loudly through the stairway until she finally reached the third floor.

Jess attentively walked along the corridor, looking for the flat-number. Finally she reached it. 324. And it even had "Becker" written on the sign below.

Taking a deep breath to stifle her joyful crying inner self, she mentally went through the lines she wanted to say to make it sound plausible that she didn't drove all the way towards the opposite direction just to see him again: ' _He needed his cell phone. It was important for work._ _She_ _was just being a polite and caring co-worker. Period!_ _'_

A last nod to herself and Jess finally rang the bell.

* _ding dang dong, dong dang ding ding_ * it sounded and low footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door, coming closer.

In a rush, the door was torn open, revealing a beautiful woman with a bright smile. Her long hair played around her small chin and the black colour was a perfect contrast to her tawny skin. Her carnelian dress matched exactly her lip tone and accentuated her feminine figure perfectly. In one word, she looked stunning and far from the thirty of age she was actually in.

"Oh," Jess froze. She hadn't expected that at all. Had she had the wrong number? Was she in the wrong floor?

The woman's smile vanished as she spotted the strange person standing there, but then a pleasant smile went back on her lips again. "Hello, can I help you?"

"Ah, I'm so sorry, I didn't want to disturb you. I must have the wrong door," Jess babbled. "I'm really sorry," she repeated and rummaged into her hand bag before stopping abruptly, remembering that she had left the file, she was looking for, in her car.

"Well, to whom did you want? Maybe I can help," the woman kindly offered.

"I was in search of my colleague. His name is also Becker, but I guess it's just a very common name, since yours is the same. And I was sure I had the right number written down, but I only looked it up once and I must have mixed the digits. Maybe you know someone who lives here with that name?" She rambled nervously, a light shade of pink colouring her cheeks.

"Oh my god," the woman pronounced suddenly and her smile became a genuine grin. "You must be Jess! Hil told me so much about you."

 _Hil? As in Hilary? As in the first name of Becker's Jess wasn't even allowed to know? This couldn't be. But she knew her name._

"Excuse me?" Jess was flabbergasted, all colour had vanished from her face and her mind was as blank as a freshly bought notebook.

"Oh I'm sorry, where do I have my manners. I am Yasmin, Hilary's wife," the woman explained and offered Jess her hand.

In an instant, Jess's whole world broke into pieces. ' _This can't be true! This can't be. This must be a mistake. Please let this be a mistake_ ,' the thoughts cried in her head.

 _'Don't panic!_ ' she tried to calm herself down, as she politely took the woman's hand and shook it.

"It's such a pleasure to finally meet someone of Hil's friends. He is so closed up about his work and everything and never brings friends over. He just talks about them, mostly about you," the woman explained, unaware of the heartbreak she had caused to the other woman. "Hil must be back any minute, do you want to come inside and wait for him?" She kindly offered, making room already.

Just in that moment, big footsteps resonated audible through the corridor, accompanied by muffled chatter.

Jess looked towards the stairways, imploringly hoping that there was a stranger coming closer. A stranger who just coincidentally had the same name as her Becker, who just coincidentally was working with a woman having her name.

The chatter loudened. And then, she saw him.

It was Becker.

Her Becker.

And he was carrying a little child with dark curly hair, telling things vividly with the aid of her arms waving around.

"Ah! There he is already," Yasmin said, the big smile back on her face again. "Hi darling," she shouted towards them.

Becker who had listened and looked towards the girl in his arms so far, turned his head straight on and froze completely as he spotted Jess standing in front of his flat, looking ashen-pale at him. Her big eyes seemed even bigger. He then continued his walk and smiled again, sending it directly to Jess.

The little girl, who had recognised the short tension, tightened her grip around her father's neck. "Who is this woman, daddy?" She asked warily, attentively watching the strange lady.

"This is Jess. A dear friend of mine from work," he explained not taking his eyes from the FCO.

The girls eyes grew big. "She has my name!" she shouted full of joy, all mistrust gone, and instantly smiled towards Jess.

"Yes, she has," Becker agreed, now standing in front of the women and handing his daughter over to his wife. "Hi Jess," He said, being surprised, scared and excited at the same time at the sudden visit.

"He...hello," she stammered, but then put on a smiling face, blocking out what she was feeling inside and trying to make this situation not any more awkward than it already was.

"Is everything alright? Do you need something?" he questioned, feeling deep concern for his friend and her sudden change of expression.

"What? No, everything is fine," Jess stated nonchalantly, trying to stifle the pain that crawled through her body.

Yasmin sensed that it was best to let the two alone. "Alright, let's make dinner, sweety. Say bye to Jess," she told her daughter.

"Bye Jess," the girl waved her hand towards the brunette, a big grin on her face before she put her arm back around her mother's neck.

"Bye," Jess said to the girl, smiling warmly and nodding her goodbye to the woman as well, who returned it and disappeared in the flat.

Then it was all silent.

"Jess?" Becker asked worriedly, not knowing how she would cope with that new information. He put his hand onto her shoulder, running his thump up and down the fabric to caress the skin beneath.

The woman startled and took a step back to shake off the unwanted contact. "What?" She stared blankly at him. She wanted answers, but was lost for words. She wanted to scream at him, why he was putting her through this, but she also knew that he never had promised her anything besides friendship, that this fancy was all playing in her head. He didn't tell her about his family because he didn't have to, they were co-workers, friends at most. His private life was none of her business. And now that she realised it, she simply wanted to cry. But she also didn't want to break down right in front of him. She knew, he would be worried even more about her, and that he would be confused, and she didn't want to confuse him or make him worry.

"Why are you here?" Becker asked with a soothing voice, hiding his discomfort at the sudden loss of contact.

"Oh! Yeah! Sorry! I completely forgot. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to bother you ... and your ... family," she quickly added, still not being able to digest that piece of information.

"You never bother-" Becker wanted to say more but Jess cut him off, ignoring him completely and continuing her ramble.

"Well you gave me your phone instead of the black box and I just thought, you might need it. And I was around this area anyway and thought I could give it to you. You know, just in case they need you at work and try to call you." She rummaged in her back, handing him the device.

"Yeah, Thanks. I only realised it when I was home already," the soldier explained, taking it and stowing it into his back pocket. He was glad that he had finally room to speak. "Do you want to come inside for a little while? I can get you the black box, maybe you like to have dinner with us?" he suggested, hoping that she would agree and he had a little more time to get rid of this awkward situation between them.

' _Dinner? With his family? I can barely hold back my tears, and he wants me to stay longer and watch this perfect little world?_ ' Jess thought full of distress.

"No!" Realising that she sounded way too harsh than she intended to, she eased her voice, repeating herself: "No, no need to. I'm in a hurry anyway. I don't want to come late to my appointment," she lied, putting on a fake smile and hoping that he would buy it.

The soldier raised his eyebrow, not knowing how to properly react upon her. "Okay," he said frowning concerned.

"Alright, Becker. Have a nice evening. I need to go now. See you at work. Bye." She had barely said the last word, when she turned around, waving quickly, and walked away.

"Bye," was all Becker could reply before she was out of sight.

* * *

 **A/N:** So, my dears, I really hope you liked the beginning. I won't officially start posting the rest of this one before I've finished "All we had". Maybe a little chapter now and then, but only maybe.

Have a nice day!

:o)


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